


Guided

by ScyllaThePurple



Category: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Childhood Friends, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Light Dom/sub, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:13:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24578842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScyllaThePurple/pseuds/ScyllaThePurple
Summary: Aerith is back to Midgard, five years after leaving the city. A missed meeting, and she ends up in unexpected places - physically and emotionally.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Guided

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of a slow fic, with multiple chapters, and some smut awaiting later on. My first multi chapter fic eh?  
> This is a "modern" Midgard (from our day and age), in which Tifa, Aerith and Cloud knew each other growing up. But where will it lead them?

Aerith raised her hand to hide her eyes from the blinding lights of the city.  
The moment that the sun had disappeared behind the horizon, every street and building had become artificially illuminated. She had forgotten how bright they could be. How restless the city was.

It'd been so long already…

But even the sounds hadn’t changed from back then. The constant noise was the same, the neverending urban life that could be perceived at all time of day.

And then, a distinct sound, just as familiar, but much closer.  
Aerith reached for her purse and took her smartphone out of it. By the time she had it in hand, it had stopped vibrating but the screen was still lit.  
She frowned at the new message she had just received.

“Complications.”

Right over their last texts was the name of the person she was having the conversation with.  
“Cloud Strife”.  
Aerith sighed. Why must he always be so vague?  
With a hint of frustration, she typed and sent her answer.

“When do you think you’ll be there?”

She frowned and took a look around. Nope, no sign of Cloud. Only the crowd, hundreds of faces she couldn’t put a name on.  
Really, they hadn’t seen each other in years, and yet he managed to be late.

She kept on waiting, after checking that she hadn’t made a mistake in where they intended to meet. The flow of people moved around her while she stayed still. Aerith began to realize that she didn’t know anything about this city anymore. While on the surface, it had stayed the same, Midgard was a shifting creation that never really took a stable shape. There wasn’t any front of a shop that she could recognize - and the streets all seemed to lead to new places she hadn't seen before.

She shook her head. There was no reason for her not to quickly adapt again. That's what she always did.  
But she would have loved to experience this return with a familiar hand holding hers, a comforting guide in this maze.

Instead, her phone vibrated again to notify a new text.

"Can't make it tonight. Sorry."

Aerith felt her heart sink. She clutched the phone tightly, before giving up and putting it back into her purse.  
She shouldn't have gotten her hopes up like this. She should have expected it. Yet, the bitterness of it was already filling her thoughts.

Aerith took a deep breath. There will be other occasions.  
With no more reason for waiting in place, she started to wander around, walking through streets after streets, from narrow alleys to crowded boulevard.  
The brown-haired girl pondered whether she should start to make her way back to her small apartment or make up for her lost evening by drowning her sorrow into enough liquor to forget all about it.

She quickly found herself without any idea of where she was or where she was going. She had walked absent-mindedly as she had tried to reconcile her distant memories of the city with the buildings around her.  
Now, whenever she took a turn, be it left or right, she always seemed to end up in the same entangled streets that led nowhere. Her pace alternated between quick rushes where she would run and turn again and again; and slow steps with no motivation behind them. Neither helped.  
She struggled to find any signs that would indicated her the way, or even street names, but there was nothing. When Aerith finally took her phone out to locate herself on the map, she discovered that this area wasn't on it, due to it being new.

Cloud deserved to at least pay for her four next dinner, with the bullshit he had just pulled. If he ever showed up again…

As she was thinking about Cloud's immaturity despite all the time that had passed, her eyes caught a movement in the corner of a vision. Some sort of smoke, swirling around.  
And then, right in front of her, spectral silhouettes, faceless under their dirty rags. They moved in unison towards Aerith as a unique entity.

Without a moment of hesitation, Aerith turned around and started running in the opposite direction.

"Shit, not these things again…" she muttered under her breath.

She wasn't the athletic type, but the spectres were terrifying. Where did they come from and what did they want? She had no idea, but she'd rather run from it than discovering it.

Her purse held tightly against her chest, she went through all of the streets again. A chill crept down her spine as she took a quick turn and her guts twisted unnaturally. Her feeling confirmed itself to be right at the second her eyes met another wave of spectre facing her.  
It was as if her heart had stopped for a moment. As if it was all over.

But Aerith shifted her trajectory in another direction and managed to avoid the spectres. The maze of small streets finally disappeared behind her, to be replaced by another neighborhood with an entirely different atmosphere. The lights coming out of the buildings here were colorful and more of a mess designed to create a festive feeling rather than to illuminate the street correctly.

She looked behind her. No spectres anymore. Only empty streets. Aerith focused back on the lights, some vague uneasiness crawling inside, but partly reassured by the new neighborhood in which people strolled around.  
She started to wander herself, her destination now a bit forgotten.  
The place seemed nice, livelier than anything else she had seen in the city today. She could stay there a while - and put behind the disappointment from earlier.

As she looked the fronts of the shops, two words caught her attention, displayed over a large horizontal building.  
"Seventh Heaven".  
Aerith knew this name, but from where? It wasn't exactly familiar either.  
The front didn't betray much from what could be hidden inside, with its double door and windows closed shut. Apart from the warm lights that formed a diffuse halo, it didn't strike as inviting.

Aerith gave in to her own curiosity nagging at her. She pulled one of the door open and entered the building.  
Inside, the lights were dimmer and specifically focused on the area around a thin counter. Tall glasses and bottles of alcohol shone from behind it. Some tables and a dance floor were left in the dark. Unsurprisingly, considering the front and the name, it was a bar - and Aerith seemed to be the only patron at the time.

There was some movement behind the bar's counter. She made out the silhouette of a woman coming into the light.

"Come, come!" the woman said heartily. "I don't know how obvious it is, but we're still open."

They both moved closer to the bar at the same moment.

"What does this pretty girl want to drink?" asked the woman, already giving her the flirty tone.

Aerith's eyes glanced around at the bartender's silhouette. A strange familiarity inhabited her long dark hair and her soft features. These brown eyes and the tender light in it, Aerith knew them as well. They were…

As the realization was hitting her, the bartender had a similar reaction and her expression quickly shifted to confusion, eyes open wide.

"Aerith?!" she exclaimed.

Aerith squinted while taking a step forward, to make sure that she hadn't been mistaken. But no, a good look at the beautiful bartender only strengthened the connexion to the girl she knew five years ago.

"Tifa?" Aerith said hesitantly, even if there was no doubt anymore.

"Oh, hm, yeah," answered Tifa, still taken aback.

Tifa, the bartender, bit her lower lip, in an awkward moment where the both of them were now openly staring at each other.

"Wow," Tifa let out while her eyes were locked on Aerith. She immediately blushed and smiled embarrassedly. "I didn't know you were coming back to Midgard!"

Aerith smiled back, a bit uncomfortable with the situation.

"I only had Cloud's number, and he told me he would pass the news to the others…"

"If the message had to get through him, no wonder I didn't get it. Cloud as usual…"

Tifa rolled her eyes and nonchalantly let her elbow rest on the counter. Her demeanor indicated a posture of relaxed friendliness, but some sort of tension seemed to lie underneath. Aerith noticed the way the bartender was biting the inside of her cheek with her eyes lost in a vision of the past.

Meanwhile, Aerith had remembered how she knew the name "Seventh Heaven". The bar where Tifa worked. Cloud must have mentioned it at some point.  
With the intent of breaking the ice, she made the final step to join the counter.

"How long have you been working there?" tried Aerith.

"Two years ! I'm an expert now," bragged Tifa with a smile, the gesture of her mouth now a lot more honest. "Oh but I was going to make you a drink. We'll just say it's on the house."

She punctuated her offer with a wink.  
After the initial surprise, Aerith was warming up to place and her old friend's presence. She nodded in answer.

"Give me the best of what Midgard has then," asked Aerith.

Tifa began to make the preparations for the cocktail, her back half turned to Aerith.

"And you? When did you get there?"

"Just today," giggled Aerith. Then her expression got a little more vague, a little lonelier. "I had to meet Cloud earlier."

Tifa had no problem catching on the hint of sadness in her childhood friend's voice. She proceeded to finish the cocktail and put it down in front of Aerith.

"But you didn't?" asked the bartender.

Aerith stared at the cocktail, considering it. Its color was a beautiful dark green, with a depth ùshe knew she could sink into. She caught her own hand shivering.

"He didn't. Cloud said he was busy."

Her hand mindlessly touched the glass, without grasping it.  
The way she said it, and imagining her returning to Midgard alone, lost in this huge city, was enough to pull hard at Tifa's heartstrings. And Tifa caught the feeling that it wasn't all there was to it.  
She stayed silent for a while, Aerith in front of her, being just as quiet. Tifa wondered if silence would be the cure to this sadness for now, or if, as her job recommended, she should give her childhood friend a little push towards the direction that will open her up.

Curiosity finally decided for her. They wouldn't catch up on five years apart by staying silent.

"It was awful from him to let you down like this," agreed Tifa. Aerith slightly nodded in response. "But we both know how he is. You'll see him later when he decides to finally show up."

Aerith's shoulders rose up then lowered, in a long unconvinced shrug.

“I guess so,” she answered. “But I had really hope that he’d be there. For me. We hadn’t seen each others in five years and…” Her voice became faint, hesitating. “I thought it was a date.”

A weird feeling twisted inside Tifa’s stomach. Not that she hadn’t seen it coming. The mutual crush between both of her friends had became pretty clear, right before Aerith went away.

Eyes down towards her glass, Aerith continued:

“But I must have got it wrong. Or he would have cared, probably.”

Her fingers gave in to the temptation and she raised the glass to her lips. Most of the liquid went down her throat in one go. She started to slowly sip the rest, mixed emotions in her eyes.

Tifa simply had to reach and put her hand on hers. In Aerith’s eyes, her emotions shifted. She recognized the gesture of empathy with gratefulness. They opened their mouth at the same time, trapped in the moment.

Aerith was the first to speak.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…”

Her voice still seemed lost, as if hidden away behind a veil.  
Tifa gently pressed on her hand, reassuring.

“Hey, it’s ok. If you want to come here to drink and talk about whatever you wish, I’ll be there.”

A shy smile made its way to Aerith’s lips.

“Thanks Tifa, that’s so nice…” She suddenly seemed distraught. “I didn’t even asked how you’ve been all this time!”

The bartender let out a loud, melodic laughter.

“I’ve been good!” Tifa opened her hands with a gesture towards the room. “I love this place, my job, and my life around it. I can’t wait to show you around.”

Her presence, her voice… It felt so warm to Aerith. How could she have forget what a literal ray of sunshine Tifa was? Did the years away erased all of it? Or did she - by an awful rejection of her mind - banish everything about her to avoid any more suffering?  
Maybe letting Tifa talk was the right idea, thought Aerith, since her own ideas weren’t the brightest at this moment.

“Hey Tifa? Did you got a girlfriend?”

Tifa’s mouth opened as if to speak, but she froze up. She looked away, embarrassed.

“Y-yeah,” let out Tifa, almost stuttering. “A few. It never worked out, though.”

Attempting to find some use to her nervous hands, she poured another cocktail for Aerith, and one for herself at the same time. She chugged the alcohol in no time however, and quickly found herself following with a second glass.

“We’re both unlucky in love then,” sighed Aerith.

Tifa hummed in agreement and pulled up a stool to sit next to her friend. The awkwardness of meeting again slowly dissolved into drunkedness as they kept sipping on their cocktails.

"Thanks a lot," said Aerith. "I can't wait to discover the city again with you."

"Whenever you want," assured Tifa.

The second after, she was already regretting her heavy handed flirty tone. But Aerith didn't mind, or notice.

They stayed sitting next to each other, and exchanged about little things. Aerith had a thousand questions about Midgard, and Tifa enough enthusiasm to answer them all. The chatting lifted Aerith's heart and the alcohol allowed her to sink into a pleasant state.  
The night went on until Aerith had a sudden realization.

Holding her dizzy head, she muttered as she got up, thanks to the bar on which she managed to hold herself:  
"I should go, I start work tomorrow."

Tifa rose with almost elegance for someone who had been drinking for nearly two hours now. She offered her steady hand to a stumbling Aerith.

"I can walk you home. Just let me close up the bar, ok?"

Aerith frowned in disapproval.

"I can get there on my own, don't worry."

"Would you even know how to find your way back?" teased Tifa.

Aerith found nothing to answered to that. She waited while Tifa turned down the lights and tidied up the bar.  
Then Tifa hand was in hers, and she was guiding her in the silent, sleepy streets of Midgard. There rarely was a sensation so comforting. A soft and friendly touch that pulled her back to security, away from doubts and sadness.

She remembers mumbling her address, Tifa smiling at her and pointing streets, buildings and neon signs, but none of what her friend said.

Then they climbed up the exterior stairs to her building, to the door of her flat. Aerith felt herself falling, being caught, and Tifa's strong arms helping her with the final steps.

While Aerith looked for her keys in her purse, Tifa gazed away awkwardly.

"Guess I'll be going now. Have a good night," said Tifa.

There was something in her voice, some deep emotion hidden away that the evening together and the alcohol had brought up back to the surface.  
It was obvious, but Aerith didn't know how to react, outside of knowing that she was too weak to look into Tifa's eyes now.

"Please be safe. Thanks for walking me back home. I don't know what I would have done without you here," confessed Aerith with a slight blush.

She noticed a smile from Tifa.

"Don't worry. We're still friends, right?"

Aerith didn't quite get if that was a question or an affirmation from Tifa. Moments later, she was gone.  
Aerith unlocked the door and walked to her barely made bed in the darkness.

She searched for something inside of her, answer or feeling, she didn’t know, but all she found was alcohol and exhaustion.  
Once under the sheets, she quickly fell asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, hope you enjoyed, I would love some feedback especially since I'll try to post chapters regularly.  
> And come and hang out at https://twitter.com/purplescylla if you wanna chat


End file.
